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X@ man@ CROSS REFERENCE v 4SUBSEITUfLE FOR MISSING COPY *1 No. s|o,|7a,` Patented sept. 6,' :898. :u L. L. H. G RARD.

' VARIABLE SPEED Gamma.

ff'f A Y y (Anuman-Mmmm, Lag-1.) v

mua|.)-,x '4' Louis LEON HECTOR GERARD, or PARIS, FRANCE, Assienon' To LA' socIrE A Das APPAREILS A cnANcnmnn'r DE viruses, oF SAME PLACE.

,PATENT t @errent f .1

.VARIABLE-spese esamina.;

'srncmca'rron fol-ming pm of uam retenu No, 610,178, ma septemboreiisos-f Application led December 28. 1897. Serial Eo. 663,901. Gl'omodahl. Patented in France April 19,1894; lo. 239,885] in Germany Inno 1,1894,Il'o.81,234; in England Inns 11, 1

894, Ho.`11,301| in Belgium July 1 1894, No. 110,959rin Switzerland J'u1y19, 1894, Fo. 8,899; in Hungary August 13, 1894,. Ho. 938 i in Italy Septem ar 30, 1894, Ho. 36,801,

and in Austria October 24, 18 94, lio- 4U 6.615.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, Louis LON Hno'ror: "GRARD, engineer, residing' at 16 Rue des Grandes Carrires, Paris,"in the Republic-of France, have inventedl an 'Improvement in VariableSpeed Gearing, (for which I have obtained a patent in France, No. 239,885, dated April 19, 1894; in England, No. 11,301, dated .l une 11, 1894; inA Germany, No; 81,234, xo dated June 1, 1894; in Belgium, No. 110,959,

dated July 13, 1894; in Italy, No.v 36,801, dated September 30, 1894; in Switzerland, No. 8,699, dated J uly 19, 1894; in Austria, No. 44/ 5,615, dated October 24, 1894, and in Hungary, No.

t5 936, dated August 13, 1894,) of which the following is a specification.

This invention consists in an apparatus for changing speed by the employment of an epicycloidal train, either spherical or plane,

zo in combination with an automatic brake forming a stop device and with an ordinary brake capable of being operated by hand at the desired moment, so as to enable the said changes of speed to be effected during the operation z5 withoutproducing by this .operationanyshock or injurious disturbance. p

, The inventionwill now be described in de- -tailwith reference to the accompanying draw-` ings, in which- 3o Figure 1 is a side elevation, Fig. .2 is a plan view, and Fig. 3 a sectional view, of one arrangement of my invention. Fig. 4 is aview of the hand-brake. Fig. 5 represents a special arrangement of the apparatus as applied to a bicycle. Fig. 6 is a transverse section of the same modification.y

The spherical epicycloidal train illustrated in Fig. 1 is composed of a shaft A, .actuated L, by a motor of any kind, and bears an arm C, 4o upon which is mounted a cone-wheel D, capable of revolving freely'on it and which may be called the intermediate wheel, This'wheel 'engages with two cone-wheels B E, mounted upon the said shaft A and also able to revolve freely thereon. One of these lateral wheels, such as B, may be called the brake-wheel, and the other lateral wheel E may be called the guiding-wheel. This` latter carries vvin this direction.

to transmit the motion toa mechanism of any 5o kind. v Y' i The basis of my invention consists in the addition of the automatic brake d, Figs. 2 and 3, forming a check device and only allow'- in ombinationwith thefnse of an ordinary brake b, which serves to stopat will the wheel B, (brake-wheel.) There is thus obtained the transmission to the other lateral or guiding wheel E of different speeds, according as the 6o hand-brake is applied or released. l

In the apparatus which I am about to describe the automatic checking of the intermediate .wheel is effected -in the following manner:

Referring to Figs. 1, 2, and 3, there is fixed upon the outer face of the intermediate wheel D a bowl or circular crown K, in which is placed a block or disk d, rigidly attached to "said wheel and the circumference o'f which possesses oblique recesses, in each of which is placed a loose piece or pawl of angular shape l, of such size fmd shape that when the wheel revolves in a given direction the pawls will be free in theirecess, while when the said whee'revolves in the opposite direction the pawls will wedge themselves between the oblique edges of the recesses of the block above described and the interior circumfer 8o ence of the hollow crown K of the intermediate wheel D, and will thus prevent any rotary motion of the said intermediate. whcol Any equivalent arrangement may be made use of for the same purpose. Thus, for instance, the loose paw-ls above described might be replaced by balls without modifying the principle of the opp:\- ratus.

In this apparatus th hand.- brak-e b t* f formed, as shown in Fig. 4, of n cord or {H1-l engaged in the V-grbove b of the hmkcwhfl B. One end of this cord is fixed to :may justablefastening f, while its othcl.n "n" s l fixed to a lever a, which can no mom either a pulley or a gear-wh eel e, which serves l ing the said wheel to revolve in one direction, 55 l the arm c, which serves as the axis of the 7o.

rangedoperatcs as follows: Tlicbralre-wheel B, being loose upon the motor-shaft A, has no action upon the system. When the said motor-shaft turns in the direction ofthe arrow the intermediate wheel B, which can only revolve in one direction, acts during-its rotary movemeutiu space upon the guide-wheel Ein the same manner as a pinion xed to the end of the' revolving arm C above described, which arm is fixed to the motorshaft, so that in this case the motion communicatcd to the guide-wheel E is equal to and in the same direction as the motion of the motor-shaft A. If, on the other hand, the hand-brake b be applied, the brake-wheel B is .immediatelyheld fast'and transmits in consequence to the intermediate wheel D a. rotary movement upon itself while it travels in space at the end of the revolving arm C upon which itis mounted, and it is in the directiou shown by the arrow y that the said intermediate wheel can turn upon its axis. It results from this double motion of the said wheel D that -it transmits to the guidingwheel E a speed of rotation double that which it possessed previously. Finally, if thehaudbrake be again released, the brake-wheel B be- '2 which is reduced to one-half.

comes loose again and the intermediate wheel D ceases to receivefrom it a rotary motion upon its axis and only acts as a xed stop upons the guiding-wheel E, the speed of rotation of It will be seen that in all these cases the direction of rotationof the three wheels B D E of which the epicycloidal train is composed is not altered, so that no injurious shock can `take place at e the momentof the changing of speed obtained.

The applications of this mechanism are numerous, and I may specially indicate those relating to bicycles and other cycles, as well as to tramways or motor-vehicles. The reduction of speed obtained permits not only of starting. with greater ease, but also of climbing the inclines which may incur in course of the journey with greater ease.

Having thus set forth the principle of my invention, I will proceed to describe in detail the modification which I have devised as specially applicable to velocipedes. As may be seen in Figs. 5 and 6, the motor-shaft A is actuated by one piece, which comprises the crank M, carrying the pedal, the piece G, actuated in a special manner, and a plate C,

'bearing the axle c of three pinions D, which latter engage, on the one hand, with an external crown E, having at its circumference teeth e, engaging with the chain of the bicycle, and, on the other hand, with an internal wheel B, provided with a lateral projection equal and parallel to the plate C and having upon its circumference a groove devised to receive the action of the brake b. The wheel Bis preferably mounted on balls upon the hinder part of the hub G, suitably provided with ball-recesses g g', of hard steel, screwed together between these two pieces, as in most ball-bearing actions no w in use. On the other hand, that part of the hub G which is near est to the plate C abovedescribed is cut out externally in the form of a spur-gearing, and in this gearing the pieces Z engage. The

outersurface. of these piecesl is applied to" the circular internal part of the hub B' of the wheel B, so as'to form an automatic brake or stopping device. These pieces l are inoperative when the internal wheel B revolves in one direction, but prevent the said wheel `from revolving in the opposite direction, as

indicated by the arrow a: of Fig. 5. In this arrangement the wheel B, which bears at its external circumference the friction-ring b of the handbrake, is yformed of dimensions Vsufficiently large to form aprojection correspending to the plate C above deseribed,and

thus to inclose the wheels of the machine in order to protect them from dust. Moreover,

it is upon the external surface of the hub B' of this wheel that the gearing b' is fixed, which engages with theA teeth d of the intermediate piuions D, above described.

In order to reduce the transverse strains on the axles c of the pinions D and to insure the regular operation of the system, all the wheels are provided on each side with rings or washers m n p, the diameters of which are so calculated as to correspond exactly to their pitch'- v circles, so that the said rings revolve freely andactone upon the other duringthe operation of the apparatus and serve at the same time to maintain the separation and the position of these various wheels, which are, moreover, held laterally in place by means of the plate C and the wheel B, as above described. It results' from this arrangement that it is no longe:` necessary to connect the crown E with the shaft A by means of a mechanism of any kind, but that it is sufficiently supported between the pieces C B by its rings p p, which revolve freely upon rings 'n n of the pinions D; These latter transmit the energy due tothe resistance of the crown E to the 'rings m m, which rest upon the circular hub B' of the wheel B. This addition of the rings fm 'n p on each side of the wheels B D E has the advantage of assuring for the apparatus a perfect stability in view of the fact l that the force exercised upon the teeth b' d e' of these wheels is produced precisely in the same plane normal to the axle A and passes through the middle of the said apparatus, so that the mechanism can be constructedvof dimensions sufiiciently small to be light and not prominent, a point which is very desirable for application to pedal-vehicles of all kinds.

The apparatus thus constructed operates in the manner already indicated above. The wheel B being loose upon the axle A, if the saidI axle be caused to revolve at the same time as all the three pinions D in the direction of the arrow a: the resistance of the chain acting upon the toothed crown E in the direction opposite to the arrow y will tend to causo the pinions D to turn in the direction of the ar- IIC It results from this that the toothrow wheel D will be wedged, by means of the icces Z, upon the axle A, whereupon the variouswheels of the apparatus will form a rigid 5 whole acting as an ordinary pinion-wheel of a bicycle. If, on the contrary, the wheel Bhe held fast by the application of the band b of the hand-brake, the pinions D (the axles of which continuo to be impelled in the direction io of rotation n) will revolve upon the toothed crown D' and will take a motion of rotation upon themselves in the same direction opposed to z, so that the angular rotation transmitted by these pinions to the toothed crown 5 E will be double that of the axlevA.

What I claim isl. In an epicycloidal-gcar train, a driveshaft, a ratchet-wheel fixed upon said shaft, a pinion surrounding said ratchet-Wheel, a zo strap-brake engaging an extension of said pinion, slidable wedge-pawls between said ratchet-wheel and said pinion, a planetary disk integral with said fixed ratchet-wheel, planetary gears carried upon said disk and which mesh with said pinion, and a douhle- 25 toothed rim having two sets of teeth one of which engages with said planetary gears and the otherwith an endless chain, substantially `as described. l 55. In a planetary-gear tram, a driving-pin- 3e ion, contact-rin gs upon cylindrical extensions of said pinion adjacent, to the ends of the teeth; the circumference of which corresponds to the pitch-circle, planetary gears engaging said pinion, similar-pitch contact-rings upon 35 l ltoms LEON ureros GRARD.

`Wituesses:

' LoUIs TAULFER, JACQUES CoNDoMY.- 

